a weekly news from Chelsea

In Need Of A Magic??….Its QPR 0 Chelsea 0

Chelsea dominated possession for most of the half without creating much of a chances. Ramires distribution on the right of the midfield, which still remains a cause for concern. Hazard came in for some uncompromising tackles and was less influential than in his previous Premier League outings.

As early as 3 minutes in Hazard shot straight at Julio Cesar when it looked easier to convert Ramires’ cross, after Torres played him in. Ramires then received a yellow card after putting an abrupt end to the subsequent attempted QPR break. QPR finally got a shot away on 14 minutes, Cech making a comfortable save. 2 minutes later, Torres cut back onto his left foot inside the area and shot from a tight angle, which Julio Cesar parried comfortably enough.

Bosingwa moved to left back following an enforced substitution for QPR and Cech hoofed a number of free kicks towards him throughout the game for Ivanovic to challenge for. This began a succession of free kick claims for fouls against us (Hazard and Ramires the unlucky parties) until David Luiz finally won one to ironic cheers from the travelling fans.

Midway through the half, Chelsea were denied 2 penalties in quick succession. Ryan Nelsen obstructed Terry in the penalty area from a Lampard free kick. Shortly afterwards, Hazard was clearly tripped well inside the area by Onouha after pace and happy feet had left him behind. As Hazard has already won 2 penalties for us in our opening 3 Premier League games, it made me wonder if his card has been marked. Either way, it was a stonewall penalty.

At the end of a half with 3 added minutes, despite bossing the game , the feeling was that we’d left goals on the table.

The second half developed into a more even contest and arguably, QPR shaded it. John Terry was called upon to make a timely block from the restart and on 49 minutes, Mackie should have done more to test Cech with a shot on the turn. Terry cleared well from a Bosingwa cross before Park was allowed a free header on 55 minutes which should have made the net ripple but instead plopped into Cech’s hands. Victor Moses replaced Ryan Bertrand and Ramires dropped back as Chelsea shifted to 4-3-3. On 61 minutes, Shaun Wright-Phillips tried a shot, which missed by some distance to the further delight of the Chelsea faithful. After Park shot wide on 63, Chelsea had 10 minutes of (largely) sustained possession, sandwiched by a recurrence of Terry’s ankle problems.

Hazard won a corner after a long pass from Lampard. Soon after, Lampard’s cross was headed wide by Ivanovic who should have worked Julio Cesar.

Torres then failed to get past Ferdinand after being played in by Hazard before Terry visibly winced with pain as he seemed to turn his ankle but was able to continue without Eva’s magic sponge! On 76 minutes, Mikel gifted Zamora a gilt edged chance but he fluffed his lines. Zamora latched on to Mikel’s underhit back pass to Cech who did well to force Zamora wide as reinforcements got back.

Torres’ afternoon ended just before 80 minutes as he was replaced by Daniel Sturridge. His pace troubled Julio Cesar enough for him to duff a clearance from a back pass for a throw in halfway inside the QPR half.

“No player is happy when they come off, it’s not a problem. I just wanted to make a change.” -Di Matteo defended Torres on his outburst.

Our best chance of the second half fell to Hazard. Ivanovic did well to feed Moses who in turn pulled back a ball across goal to Hazard who blazed over from less than 10 yards. As the clock ran down on 3 minutes of added time, Chelsea treated the football like a pinball as possession was repeatedly conceded with some awful passes. Cisse, a second half substitute was played in by Zamora and his shot was well blocked by David Luiz. But as the final whistle blowed, time will tell if this was a point gained or 2 points dropped but its hard to argue the result was unfair.

Points To Be Considered After This Game:

Torres attitude towards the team is inappropriate and can be axed if his results seems poor in the next two matches. Sturridge or Victor Moses can replace him as we saw how dangerous Moses can be in the upfront!!

Ramires is producing less of his “Samba Skills” in the 4-2-3-1 formation and unless he is not starting as a central midfielder, I think that a super-talent will turn into a super- flop.

Bertrand still needs time in the reserves and inplace of him bring Lucas Piazon (if we need to score goals!!)

Why is the Brazilian (Oscar); who played a part in every Brazil goal in the Olympics, still on the bentch?